


A Long, Beautiful Dream

by saltylikecrait



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Established Relationship, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Nutcracker AU, Retelling, Wartime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-08-29 02:12:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16735074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltylikecrait/pseuds/saltylikecrait
Summary: ANutcrackerretelling. On Christmas Eve, Finn returns to be by his queen's side.





	A Long, Beautiful Dream

**Author's Note:**

> For Finnrey Fridays. This AU is a retelling of _The Nutcracker_ , inspired by _The Nutcracker and the Four Realms_ and the original stories it is based on.

When he arrived back to the palace that night, the Christmas celebrations were in full swing. It was a beautiful winter night to share with friends and family, a calm, snowy night where the moonlight illuminated the snow and the white of the palace’s architecture. Bright and illuminated, decorated with gold and silver moldings, the palace was a fantasy come to life to the eyes. And as he watched children run down the hallways, playing with their newest toys, Finn wondered how he was so blessed to have made it in time to be there that night.

But his return to this place had nothing to do with the celebration itself. 

From her private box in the balcony of the palace’s theater, Queen Rey lounged in her seat thoughtfully as the dancers from the Realm of the Snowflakes twirled effortlessly across the stage, the white tulle of their costumes resembling the natural wonders that their Realm took its name from. From his place down below, Finn could tell that their waltz was mesmerizing to Rey as she tried to figure out exactly where she should be watching. He saw her eyes flicker back and forth on the stage. The Queen was strong in her own regard, known for her great skill with a staff and saber, but even Finn would be hard-pressed to believe that Rey could match the movements of the dancers and still remain graceful.

Rey was alone in a box that could fit a few more people in the seats beside her and Finn could tell by her frown and tired eyes that she had been listening to the whispers of her subjects as they criticized their queen, knowing very well that she could hear them. Rey was nothing like her mother, they were probably saying. If her mother were still alive, the Realms wouldn’t be falling apart and on the brink of war. Too bad she didn’t inherit her mother’s mind and not just her knack for inventions.

This is partly why Finn came back tonight, even though when he left her earlier, she had told him that she didn’t want to see him until the celebrations had ended.

The war had taken its toll on the both of them. When Finn’s uncle had asked him to accompany Rey to check on her late mother’s grand creation, he had no idea that it would lead to kingdom of talking toys, betrayal of her mother’s first live creation, and a curse placed upon him to forever look like a nutcracker soldier. And despite their misgivings, he and Rey had overcame every tribulation and figured out how to lift his curse. To destroy the Sugar Plum Fairy had seemed to break Rey’s spirit, for if she couldn’t trust her mother’s first creation and her kind words and beauty, who could she?

Yet the death of Sugar Plum didn’t end the war and the Realms had yet to actually reach a real treaty; too much damage had already been done. Mother Ginger was still hurt by the betrayal of her own friends and her son that she wasn’t sure if she was ready to allow her Realm to unify with the others. Finn and Rey respected that choice. Their only comfort was the thought that they did manage to agree to an armistice over the period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. It would be a time where no troops would go to the battlefield and a time where everyone would try to put the war behind them.

But Rey, it seemed, could not do so and Finn wondered if she felt that the old problems of the Realms had something to do with her own failures as a person. As the year went by, he watched as the light in her eyes, full of life and wonder and promise, dulled. When he wasn’t out on duty as Captain of the Guard, Finn was always by her side – it was where he wanted to be – and tried to do whatever he could to bring that light back. That light was something that he fell in love with and watching her suffer in silence made his own heart ache. Rey went from the brilliant young queen back to the broken girl he had met on the night that his uncle took her in, the night that her parents died. The Realms and all the adventures they provided them made Rey almost into a new woman, but now the illusion of perfection had faded and heavy was the head that wore the crown.

“I thought I was clear that I wanted you to go back for the week,” she told him without looking away from the stage. He had not entered her box yet and somehow, she knew he was there.

Finn adjusted the collar of his uniform – white brocade with gold embellishments for this week of celebrations instead of the scarlet tails he usually wore – and pushed back the curtain to make his entrance. He bowed to her before sitting next to her.

“That’s not why I’m here.”

She tore her eyes away from the ballerinas, staring straight into his eyes with a hint of alarm. The whites of them were tinted pink.

“Is the way back to our world… gone?” she asked.

He shook his head. “It’s still there. Don’t worry.”

“So then why are you here?”

Trying to take her hand, he sighed as Rey rejected him and kept her hands neatly clasped together in her lap. “I came back here so that you wouldn’t be alone for Christmas, Rey.”

“I’m hardly alone.” And to emphasize this, she waved her hand towards the audience in the seats below them.

“Could’ve fooled me.”

The glare that she shot at him would have been deadly if it looks could kill. He thought that she was going to say something more, but instead she ignored him and resumed watching the ballet until it ended. Then, after showing her gratitude and approval to the dancers, she stood up and left the box, the white silk of her dress and the pastel blue of her capelet trailing behind her.

Finn almost felt like he needed to jog to catch back up to her. The colors of her dress had shocked him at first, no longer being accustomed to seeing light, delicate colors on her. When she first arrived here, Rey had taken to pastels like all the locals in this Realm, but after the death of the Sugar Plum, she abandoned the light shades for darker blues and reds, pinks and purples reminding her too much of the pain that she had felt.

But to Finn’s relief, she didn’t try to run away from him and stopped after she reached the last step of the grand staircase in the palace, looking up at the massive Christmas tree in the center of the hall. The lit candles and the array of ornaments and colors seemed to make her thoughtful again, and Rey stepped closer to the tree, her heels echoing against the hard floor.

“I haven’t seen you in white forever,” Finn commented. “I almost forgot how pretty it could be on you.”

Once, this might have made Rey blush until her entire face went red and she stammered out of a desperate attempt to hide her embarrassment, and once, Finn would have found himself charmed by this side of her, but Rey made no acknowledgement to his compliment and he felt as if his heart had been physically squeezed in his chest. How was this the same woman that he had fallen in love with? Had the war really hardened Rey’s heart to the point that she might no longer love him back? She had made a promise to him and he would have never taken Rey for a woman to break her promises.

“I always did love that uniform on you,” she finally observed and Finn felt his heart almost beat in relief. Looking down at the white brocade sleeves, he realized that he had only worn this uniform one other time, and that was on the day of Rey’s coronation. When she knighted him and named him Captain of the Guard, she had summoned him to her side on the throne and seemed to not be able to take her eyes off of him until he kneeled in front of her. He had always hoped that he would see that devotion and longing reflected in her eyes, for surely it was the same in his.

He stood at her side now, hoping that she would accept him as his equal again. “I’m worried for you, Rey,” he confessed. “You haven’t been yourself in a long time.” Then, he realized that he couldn’t beat around the bush any longer. “I came here for a few reasons.”

“Not just so I wouldn’t be alone on Christmas?” She arched an eyebrow.

Frowning, he decided he couldn’t lie. “No… Well, that was a part of it. There have been talks from the Realms about your state and whether you are still fit to rule.”

“I’m well aware.”

“Then you know that your subjects are growing angry with your sudden disinterest to govern?” He reached for her hand again and to his surprise, she let him take it. “Rey, you are my queen, and I will always be loyal to you, but I need to know why you are no longer taking audience with your counsel and locking yourself away all day.”

“So, you think I should step down and let the regents take over again?” she asked. Her eyes met his, and he understood that she really did want his honest opinion.

“Only if you don’t want to be the queen anymore,” he said. “It’s hard to see you like this and I don’t think you’re happy. When you were crowned, everyone thought that you were going to bring the Realms together again. Now, there are doubts that you can even rule.”

Bending down to pick up an ornament that had fallen off of its branches, Rey placed it carefully back on the tree. “It’s harder than I thought it would be,” she confessed. “It wasn’t like Mum left me a manual.” This last part was almost growled and Rey paused to stop speaking, surprised by her own tone of voice. “I’m not sure if I really want this,” she finished.

“Then we can give the regency back and leave,” he offered. “Go back home.”

“I thought you came with me here because you didn’t want to go back home?”

She had a point there. For all it was worth, one of the reasons why Finn felt so content in the Realms was because he had simply been unhappy in his old life. Like Rey, they had been running from their problems only to find that they could never escape them and that new problems would eventually find them. But now it seemed like Rey was ready to run again and Finn was growing tired.

“Is this about the Sugar Plum Fairy?” he guessed.

She shrugged. “Not really. Well, not just her.” Rey began to walk around the tree, inspecting the presents left for the children underneath it. “Mother Ginger assured me that her son's betrayal was no fault of mine and that she does not hold him against me and the rest of the Realms.” But then, as she flipped over a tag and read a name off it absent-mindedly, she said, “Too much has happened in the last year, and before that. My mother hid so much from me and now I have to learn all of this on my own. It’s not what I expected.”

“We’ll help you,” Finn affirmed, trying to grab her attention again. “No one wants you to fail, Rey. We all want to end the war.”

Saying nothing, Rey looped her arm through his and led him through the halls. In any other occasion, Finn would have loved to be this close to her, but her pace was urgent as she led him up another flight of stairs, up to the apartments where the palace residents lived.

“So what?” she snapped at him once they were out of earshot. “You came back to… tell me that everyone wants me to step down under the guise of wanting to be with me tonight?” She stomped her foot. “Why didn’t you go back to your uncle’s house for the week?”

But he stopped her from continuing by holding up his hand in a gesture to ask her to quiet. “Actually, on my way there, I was given something that I think you might need.”

She looked at him with disbelief. “What?”

“I got you a present,” he clarified. “Though really, I wasn’t the one to find it. On my way through the Christmas Tree Forest, I came across Commander Dameron and he told me that Mother Ginger had found something that she wants you to have. When I saw what it was, I realized it might help you and that I needed to come back right away.”

He then took the lead this time, taking her back to the French doors leading to her private suite. “I left it here before going to look for you.”

A small package lay on the foot of her bed, wrapped in a simple brown paper and adorned with a silver ribbon that almost matched her bedspread.

Finn grinned sheepishly. “Sorry about the wrap job. Didn’t have proper wrapping paper on short notice.”

But if Rey minded, she didn’t make it known. Instead, she sat on her bed and sat the package in her lap. When he looked at it now, he realized that its odd shape might be a giveaway if Rey had any inkling of familiarity to the object inside. But when she made no movement to open it, Finn tried to coax her into undoing the ribbon.

“Shouldn’t I wait until tomorrow?” she half-teased.

“I think you might need this now,” he told her.

So Rey pulled on the ribbon, untying it and allowing the paper to come loose.

“Oh,” she sighed as she looked over the object inside the gift. “Finn, it’s beautiful.”

Turning the egg-shaped box in her hands, she admired the white and gold coloring though she looked a little confused. “What is it, though?”

He was a little disappointed that she had no knowledge of the gift, but he understood that there had been a chance that this would have been the case. The box might have been in the possession of Mother Ginger for decades, for all he knew.

“According to Poe,” he began, “it was your mother’s.” Then he frowned. “It looks like there’s supposed to be a key for it, but no one seems to know where it is.”

Rey’s eyes widened as her hand drifted up towards her neck and collarbone where a necklace rested against her skin. The pendent itself had not been large, but the rose quartz butterfly that had been her mother’s had turned out to be a key to the giant machine that brought the toys of these Realms to life. Finn understood what she was thinking and watched as she removed the necklace and held the pendant up to the slot where the hinges on the egg locked together.

A small _click_ told them that the egg had opened, reveling a small ballerina figurine in an _arabesque_ position twirling in a circle as a musical chime played. Rey sighed and her eyes filled with tears as she listened to the song.

“My mother used to hum this to me when I was a baby,” she said. “I haven’t heard it in years.” Then she began to sob, holding a hand up to her face to try to wipe the tears away.

Finn sat beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist as he pulled her closer to him. This time, she did not try to pull away as they listened to the song together.

When it came to a slow right before the final note echoed and faded, Rey gripped the egg in her hands again and remained quiet for a moment, lost in thought again. Finn waited.

“I think I know what she would have wanted me to do now,” Rey finally said.

“And that is?” Finn wanted some clarification.

“I’ll try harder,” she explained. “And if I still am not the right person for the job or I get like this again, I’ll bring back the regency. Mum would have wanted me to try, but she wouldn’t have gotten angry at me if it turned out I just wasn’t good at the ruling part.”

Finn nodded. “I know you can do it.”

"I’m sorry I haven’t been nice to you lately. There wasn’t an excuse for it.” She didn’t look him in the face again, ashamed of herself and her actions of late.

He accepted her apology but something still hung in the air that needed to be addressed. “Do you still want to marry me?” The thought of her answer made him nervous as he wondered if the past couple of months had changed everything for them. Originally, they had planned for a long engagement until things had settled down and they felt the time was right, they were young after all and Finn had asked for her hand earlier than he would have liked – a spur of the moment choice. No one thought poorly of them for wanting to wait.

“I promised you, didn’t I?” she whispered.

But Finn shook his head. “No, you promised that you would love me regardless of how I looked.” He thought back to the time when he was a nutcracker soldier, insecure over the thought that he would be that way forever and that Rey would never look at him the way he looked at her. It was just like Sugar Plum to base a curse around appearance. “You never promised to marry me.”

“I believe accepting your proposal is something like a promise.” She held out her hand, punctuating this statement by showing him the engagement ring on her finger. “We just need time to work things through. You’re giving me another chance to be a good queen and I want to take that. I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“You haven’t disappointed me,” he told her as he brushed a stray strand of hair from her cheek, tucking it back behind her ear.

He stayed with Rey while she changed out of her dress and into her nightgown. The wispy material of the gown hung loose on her, making Rey look more like herself than any of the gowns and military regalia did.

Finn stood up, ready to excuse himself when Rey stopped him.

“Are you coming to bed?”

Finn grinned. “Am I welcome?”

“Well you know, it’s Christmas Eve and you did come back so I wouldn’t spend the time alone.” She gave him the first warm smile that he had seen out of her in weeks.

And what could he say to refuse her?

“Well,” he lowered his voice. “If my queen commands.”


End file.
